I can't for the life of me figure out why a printer would want you to do the separations yourself. Most designers don't have the proper PPDs and RIP to do this and really have no need. The printer will. I have a feeling that your communications with this printer are with a sales rep.who like most sales reps don't have a pancakeing clue. Try calling and talking directly with their pre-press person. Color seps are really easy at their end. I deal with this stuff everyday and to me trying to deal with a client supplied set of separations would involve much more work than doing it myself. Double check this request and make sure they are not talking about having the files set up properly to separate. IE: files set to CMYK or proper spot colors. Sorry I can't help more but their request makes no sense.

I love children but I don't think I could eat a whole one.

I still think this is a communication problem but I have given this some thought and here is how you can do it.

Import the original file into Quark as either a Tiff for raster or an Illustrator EPS for vector.

If you have Acrobat Distiller:
Print the file out of Quark with separations and registration checked only select print to file as your printer. Then drag the PS file you created into distiller to make a PDF.

If you do not have Acrobat Distiller:
Out of Quark export as a PDF with registration & separations selected.

Then open the pdf in Illustrator, outline any fonts that might still be in there and then save the separate files as cyan.EPS, magenta.EPS, etc.

Hope this helps. [img]/emoticons/cool.gif[/img]

I love children but I don't think I could eat a whole one.

I really appreciate the responses Kool!! Yeah, the guy I'm dealing with is the owner of the print shop, go figure. He just said to send an eps of the separations, so I don't know. I don't know if he meant the file, then they will separate it or what. I will try those steps you gave me and see if I can do this. If you have any other input, I will be here! Thanx!!
-WizeGuyzDezignz

I want to add, that I have QuarkXPress 5.0, so it's an earlier version. When I try to export as a .pdf, it asks for Acrobat Distiller still. I don't have Acrobat Distiller. Where can I get it, and how much is it? Thanx!!
-WizeGuyzDezignz

www.adobe.com/products/acrobatpro/tryout.html [img]/emoticons/cool.gif[/img]

I love children but I don't think I could eat a whole one.

Thank you so much Kool!!! For some reason though, I can't seem to find the separations section in the print setup in Quark. If it's there, it's greyed out for some reason. Does that mean my printer doesn't support it, or is it somewhere else? I have Quark 5.0. Thanx!!
-WizeGuyzDezignz

Once you get distiller installed it should show up as an available printer. Your seps options should work then when you select it.

I love children but I don't think I could eat a whole one.

Kool, I can't thank you enough, that worked smoothly!! I went this morning and gave the printer the disc, so hopefully I did everything right!! Thanx a lot Kool!!
-WizeGuyzDezignz

No problem [img]/emoticons/cool.gif[/img]

I love children but I don't think I could eat a whole one.